HYDE-ING ABORTION POLICY: CONGRESSIONAL CONSERVATIVES AND THE TRANSFORMATION OF ABORTION POLITICS IN THE 1970s

Abstract

This thesis argues that conservatives in Congress used the Hyde Amendment to fundamentally transform abortion politics in the United States after Roe v. Wade by shifting the debate from constitutional rights to questions of funding and access. The Hyde Amendment was passed in 1976, banning federal Medicaid dollars from funding abortion or abortion-related services. Chapter One examines the immediate post-Roe period, showing how anti-abortion legislators initially failed to pass right-to-life constitutional amendments, but began experimenting with funding restrictions as a more viable strategy to secure pro-life legislative wins. Chapter Two begins in 1976, detailing how Henry Hyde successfully combined moral rhetoric with a pragmatic fiscal appeal to build a bipartisan coalition in Congress that passed his amendment just three years after the landmark Supreme Court decision constitutionalizing abortion rights. Finally, Chapter Three traces how the Hyde’s framework became entrenched in federal policy and expanded to shape decades of litigation, institutional restrictions, and government programs that increasingly limited abortion access without directly challenging its legality. Ultimately, the Hyde Amendment stands as a durable and powerful blueprint for regulating abortion through federal policy, with consequences that continue to define the landscape of abortion access today.